Memo From The Devil

A recent daily Mass Gospel had words about the devil. As in reality. Jesus spoke of the reality of Satan — the devil who has a strategy. The strategy has been approved by the governing body of the Elders of Hell, and it has passed throughout the Network of the Evil One.

The strategy is in the form of a memo. To All Souls in the Kingdom of Hatred: Turn Everything Upside Down. Make evil as if it is good. Make everything good appear as evil. Where there are people who support ‘that church’ and who believe that homosexuality is an evil practice — lead humans to make the believers into bigots and haters of love and tolerance.Where there is abortion and the termination of babies in the womb, label it as the practice of reproductive health for women. Note: The Elders unanimously like this turn of phrase.

And how has this Strategy of the Kingdom of Hatred worked in the last decades? Let me quote Archbishop Charles Chaput from his homily at the 2014 March for Life:

“Seventy years ago, abortion was a crime against humanity. Four decades ago, abortion supporters talked about the “tragedy” of abortion and the need to make it safe and rare. Not anymore. Now abortion is not just a right, but a right that claims positive dignity, the license to demonize its opponents and the precedence to interfere with constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech, assembly, and religion. We no longer tolerate abortion. We venerate it as a totem.”

Yes, I’d say that the perversion of truth and reality into political slogans and media sound-bites has definitely been an evolving success for Satan.

Well, dear friends. As they say down in Texas… I’m on FAHR… you hear me? I’m on FAHR… and none of that work of the devil is sticking with me today. I’ve recently spent 3.5 days down in Mesa, Arizona attending an Apologetics Academy. It was awesome. Now it wasn’t so much about the lies of Satan as much as it was about recognizing the great gifts, the Truths we’ve been given in Holy Scripture, the Church, and the Sacraments.

Imagine spending three sessions listening to, and interacting with, Peter Kreeft. Never heard of him? He’s an absolutely brilliant P.hD. philosopher – he’s written 70…70 books and speaks around truth in the world. He teaches at Boston College. Some of his books include: The Handbook of Catholic Apologetics, You Can Understand the Bible, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Heaven but Never Dreamed of Asking… etc.

Imagine spending five sessions with Jim Burnham, an internationally known, on-fire apologist for the Catholic faith, an author of a dozen books on how to understand and defend doctrines of the Church.

I’m also on ‘fahr’ because of spending five sessions with Patrick Madrid… a speaker, defender of the faith, author, adjunct professor at Franciscan University, and he’s on EWTN Catholic radio each afternoon. NB: I don’t have confirmation of this but I believe Patrick takes a brand of Catholic Vitamins. 🙂

Some of you may be familiar with Patrick Madrid for one of his book series: Surprised by Truth. There are three books in this series, and the format is to use 10-15 page stories of people who have found truth in the Catholic faith. Some have lived as the devil’s minions. Patrick has done many other books, and more are in the works. They are oriented toward getting people to look at or understand the gift of Truth in the Catholic Church. Get someone looking at (for example) short stories of conversion or change of heart, and you have people whose hearts become open to the Grace of Jesus and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The memo from the devil says to turn everything upside down – reverse common sense. I’m not so sure if our answer might be something like a Christian Tea Party, but I would sure enjoy hearing from a few like-minded Catholics who’d be willing to form a group. A group with a name such as Catholics United for Common Sense. What do you think? Let’s see: marriage between a man and a woman used to (most often) last for all of life. Today, marriage is a matter of convenience and feelings and continual redefinition. Common sense would tell us….

About Author

Deacon Tom Fox and his wife Dee are co-hosts of the CATHOLIC VITAMINS Podcast for over 6 1/2 years. Tom has also been a member of the Catholic Mom columnists team for eight years, and was a regular contributor to the Catholic Moments Podcast for three years. Most recently, Deacon Tom has been leading a project to bring Catholic radio to the north central Arizona community where he and Dee reside. Blessings!